Do they make such a device?

[derekwwww]

Ok here is what I am wondering....

Do they make a home entertainment piece that is like a computer external hard drive that You can plug into your receiver?

Like say I have an ext hard drive for my computer that I have movies on, but dont want to burn the movies and dont want to hook my TV up to my TV output of the computer... Is there something I can buy that has the size of an ext hard drive (500GB or so?) that I can put my movies on, that I plug right into the receiver of my home theatre and watch movies just like that? I know they make PVR (i think they are called) but they dont hold that many movies do they? They are more for recording TV shows?

Do they make anything like this or no?

Thanks

 

[Whitey80]

Appletv does that, rightt?
i use my xbox to do that same thing. Stream from hulu and other internet sources with playon, netflix stream and the windows media center extender to access my *ahem* legitimately gotten movies.

 

[dkane360]

http://store.duneplayer.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=12

I'm planning on getting one when they come in stock

 

[BMXTRIX]

What you are talking about is a media server or a media player. Not only do they make them, but they come in all types of different shapes, sizes, and colors.

The hard part is really figuring out EXACTLY what it is that you are trying to accomplish.

Video files have about 2,000 different video encoders/decoders available (codecs) and almost no player is capable of actually doing everything that someone wants. Popcorn Hour has some nice product, as does the aforementioned Dune. I'm prebably going with a Dune product for the horsepower it delivers. But, I will be networking it to a Windows Home Server and several TB of Blu-ray Disc rips (original ISO format).

I've taken my DVD collection to MP4 format for my AppleTV, but the quality is nothing like the original DVD, so I'm moving away from that and will probably stick with original media rips.

As to just plugging a hard drive into your receiver...

You would need a receiver which is capable of decoding the video files in all 2,000+ flavors that they may be in from that hard drive.

So, the media player is that interface which will do it for you and give you a traditional HDMI, component video, and/or composite video output with associated audio.

The PS3 does it. The X-Box 360 does it.

There are a number of cheaper players which can do it as well, notably the Western Digital TV (WDTV) allows for a networked or USB hard drive right to it and will play back a number of different file formats and is around $100.00. Not to bad!

 

[sholling]

I use a Western Digital TV Live which is both cheap and quite good for media playback.

 

[adk highlander]

I'm using a Popcornhour C-200 connected to a server storing my Blu-ray rips. The C-200 can use an internal HD or connect to USB drives or use media over the network.

There are a few interfaces you can use to get a great look to navigate through your movies. One is YAMJ (Yet another movie jukebox) which has been created by users and a new firmware release from Popcornhour adds their own NMJ (network media jukebox) interface.

I don't know the other products but I can say that so far the c-200 has played everything I've thrown at it and I'm happy. There is also a great forum on their site to get help if you have problems.

 

[Warpdrv]

^^^^ +1

Yamj is a great interface in conjunction with the C200's, though I regularly just surf through the normal network browser with ease as well....

Things are finally very stable with the Popcorn hours last bout of firmware

 

[derekwwww]

Well like I said I have these movies on my external hardrive and I have been burning them for my sister and her husband but I was thinking for a xmas gift it would be nice if I could buy them something that I could put all the movies on and they would watch them directly from there... They do have a computrer but arent very good on it that is why I would like something they could just plug right into there home theatre system. Im looking at the Dune and the WD TV... both would require me to buy them both an ext hard drive and this unit correct? Nobody makes a play unit/storage unit all in one do they?

Thanks

 

[sholling]

Well like I said I have these movies on my external hardrive and I have been burning them for my sister and her husband but I was thinking for a xmas gift it would be nice if I could buy them something that I could put all the movies on and they would watch them directly from there... They do have a computrer but arent very good on it that is why I would like something they could just plug right into there home theatre system. Im looking at the Dune and the WD TV... both would require me to buy them both an ext hard drive and this unit correct? Nobody makes a play unit/storage unit all in one do they?

Thanks

First don't mistake the WDTV and the WDTV Live. The non-"live" version is way too limited. You connect the live to an external hard drive or your network, or both. There are devices that will accept an internal hard drive but you pay more to get the same capabilities.

 

[derekwwww]

Ok thanks. So my best bet would be to get them an ext HD that I can transfer the movies onto, and a WD TV Live? Then they could hook the ext HD to the WD TV Live, and have the WD TV Live hooked to their home theatre system?

Thanks

 

[sholling]

The WDTV Live has an HDMI connector (cable not included) with audio over HDMI or an optical connector. There are also proprietary cables included for connection to component video should that be your only choice.

There are two USB ports for hard drives. I suggest reading up on the specs.

 

[BMXTRIX]

They do have a computrer but arent very good on it that is why I would like something they could just plug right into there home theatre system. Im looking at the Dune and the WD TV... both would require me to buy them both an ext hard drive and this unit correct? Nobody makes a play unit/storage unit all in one do they?

I believe the Dune is available with an integrated hard drive as well as it may be available with an integrated Blu-ray Disc player.

The Dune HD Base 3.0 shows exactly what you are talking about with an integrated drive.

http://dune-hd.com/hd_players/110-dune-hd-base-3.0.html

The WDTV Live requires an external drive, but the unit itself is really small, so the combination of the two is really small, and you can just grab ANY USB drive and load media, then plug it into the back of the unit with a USB cable. It is really easy to use.

The Popcorn Hour products are very interesting as well. The 200 unit, which someone above owns, with the YAMJ interface is perhaps one of the most interesting out there. I was hoping to get 3 or 4 units this year to try out, but didn't have the funds available for that testing. Hopefully next year.

 

[derekwwww]

My brother in law and sister have a nice home theatre setup. Im not sure exactly what, but definatly the TV will take the HDMI. So if I went with the WD TV Live and an ext HD, I would need to purchase a HDMI cable to go from the WD TV Live to the TV, and there is a cable included with the WD TV Live that would do the audio from the WD TV Live to his home theatre receiver?

So an ext HD, a WD TV Live, a HDMI Cable, and some setting up....

If that sounds like it would work then I think that would be a fairly good way to go...

Thanks

 

[BMXTRIX]

That will work.

In the A/V world, if he has an A/V receiver, the HDMI would carry audio and video and would be connected directly to the A/V receiver. But, I expect that your family may know this already.

You can order a cheap HDMI cable from Monoprice or pick one up at Amazon. Don't spend more than 10 bucks on that HDMI cable!